ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN COLLEGE

PAULO MENDES DA ROCHA

ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN

WASHINGTON 2013

Archias Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Vitria, October 25, 1928) is a Brazilian architect and urban planner. Belonging to the generation of modernist architects led by Joo Batista Vilanova Artigas, Mendes da Rocha has taken in recent decades a prominent position in Brazilian contemporary architecture, having been awarded in 2006 with the Pritzker Prize, the most important of world architecture. Author of controversial projects and who constantly divide the critics, as the Brazilian Sculpture Museum and the portico located at Praa do Patriarca, both in So Paulo. It is also in this city that the architect has spent most of his life. Formed architect and urban planner from the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Mackenzie Presbyterian University, So Pauloem 1954, part of one of her first classes. During this period the college was still attached to a model of historicist architecture and Mendes da Rocha began to join a group of students interested in modern architecture (as Jorge Wilheim and Carlos Millan). The architecture proposed by Vilanova Artigas the influences from his first major project, the gym's Club Athletico Paulistano. Already in this first book, Paul designs using concrete apparent, large open spaces, rational structures, among other elements that would characterize the "Escola Paulista" above. Passing to teach at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU), University of So Paulo (USP) in 1961, amid an intense social debate promoted by teachers and students. We discuss now the social role of the architect, which would not please ogoverno military that initiated in 1964. As a result, their political rights are annulled in 1969 and is forbidden to teach. Returns the only University in 1980, along with other teachers cassados (including, Vilanova Artigas). In 1998 Paul Mendes becomes professor of architectural design at the school, the same year that compulsorily retires. Since then receives a number of international awards for his work, held in various parts of the world, among which stand out the Mies van der Rohe Prize for Latin aAmrica reform bill by the Pinacoteca do Estado de So Paulo (galardeado in 2001) and Pritzker Prize (in 2006). The architecture of Paulo Mendes da Rocha is often cited as a paradigmatic example of aesthetic thought that characterizes what is called Escola Paulista Brazilian architecture, an online project that was spearheaded by the figure of John the Baptist and Vilanova Artigas widespread in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of So Paulo, in which school Mendes da Rocha would be a teacher. The Escola Paulista (so named because obviously became famous in the hands of architects who worked mainly in So Paulo and

So Paulo), although widely criticized in recent decades for its high social and economic cost, was concerned primarily with promoting a architecture "raw, clean, clear and socially responsible" (in some way, influenced by the aesthetic ideals of the European Brutalism), and presented formal solutions that supposedly would allow immediate apprehension on the part of users of the architecture, the ideals of economy and synthesis Space showcased its formal elements within a reasoning so-called real structural architecture. It also features motion seeking solutions that could provide the formal presentation of a city project or a utopian project actually inside the building. In the work of Paulo Mendes da Rocha several of these elements appear, gathered under a clear spatial intent evidenced by the choices of architectural design. It's a work in which the influence of the so-called "masters of Modern Architecture" transpires: the concern that even with a synthetic architecture and clean is expressed by the construction details rigorously studied (Mies van der Rohe), the concrete coupled with large spans where the relationship between individual and space is sometimes intimate and sometimes monumental (Vilanova Artigas), architecture formalist looking denote functionality (Le Corbusier / International Style), the search space supposedly supporters of human society, within a project of the city and society (Rino Levi, Artigas, Alvar Aalto, etc.). The architectural gesture promoted by Paulo Mendes da Rocha, ie intentions projetuais that express a particular world view or a certain design each seeking its own way also propose a "project of humanity," and such an act as it evolves his career progresses. This project, which is not just his work, it is also expressed, generally, in all the work of the Paulista School. Given that such a gesture is supposedly always confident, the works of Paulo Mendes finally characterized by a rigid attitude, accurate over the territory: the architect believes that the domain of the site - either by changing the topography of his complete redefinition or even a simple action on the flow of circulation around is a key element in the expression domain and integration of man and of nature. According to his words, the first and primary architecture is geography. [1] His work is also said by some to be characterized by a "thinking of gateways and plans." In fact, in several of his projects, the full spatial configuration is done through a quick game structure, promoted by compositional mastery of traditional construction elements (beams and columns, as well as simple walls and slabs). The projects in which more becomes clear this feature are doMuseu Brazilian Sculpture, Form Store and some residences. Despite the apparent influence of the aforementioned Mies van der Rohe and Artigas, Paulo Mendes da Rocha is hailed by some as a legitimate master when dealing with this language.